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First time up there without a boat to play with which was odd, but the weather was awfy breezy so just as well. F8's and 9's for a bit. Even some of my usually rocky bits were out of bounds, so had to play on the pier at Kilchoan for a bit till it settled, the little un' hauling mackeral in heaps of mackeral, mostly shaken off the hook straight back into the drink, but scranned a fair few as well, forgot how good mackeral can be. We scoffed loads of em, favourite method of the fortnight was to rub a bit of Nasi Goreng into the fillets and grill em. Finn got a new rod so I used his weeny little 3quid spinning rod with a micro fixed spool reel and 3lb line just for the fun of it!
weather did settle enough to get around all the usual haunts though, only to be followed by gazillions of just on size or slightly undersize coalies - almost everywhere. had one night at the lighthouse with literally a fish every cast for both me and finn. tried all sorts, bottom fishing, float fishing, spinning fly fishing, same story. stick a set of daylights on and get 6 at once
but when you've a spot like this to fish who cares what you catch
did have one coley free session and landed (and lost) some muckle big mackeral, biggest I've seen any road, a couple must of been pushing 2lb, which were noshed as a tribute to Mr C and the nicest tasting ones of the fortnight, maybe Mr C can confirm that the bigger lads taste bestest
also invented an automatic 'chummin' machine for anyone going sharking. the pooch is partial to mackeral, if I leave em at me feet she'll whip one and eat it double quick. although eating 4 on the trot was a bit much and 10 minutes later back they came, perfect mashed chum for groundbait, spewed into the sea off a rock edge, the fish went nuts for the next hour!
did get at the pollock a couple of times plenty of them as well, all around the 4 to 7 mark (unfortunately thats inches BTW)
plenty of the cleanest fattest flatties I've seen in a while from the sandy beaches, best about a 2lber, hard to tell wether they were all flounder or plaice though, so good was their disguise (false beard and comedy groucho marx specs), but beautiful fish to look at ( or rub with lemon zest and fry)
second last day, had a wander and a bit of rock hopping and found a new spot, now known as the doorway on account of holl saying it looks like a doorway. Sheer cliff side with a big square cut out you can step down a few rocks into and be just a few feet above the water, sheltered from the elements and wide enough to swing a 12 foot rod
found where Mr Pollack's big mates hide out 8 or 9 casts with the spinning rod, 4 takes lost 2, landed 2. guessed them at 6 and 8lbs , although the kitchen scales said 5 and 7! scrappy as owt though and ducked and dived all the way in. ran back to car for the flea rod and hooked several (probably little) lost em all, finally got a wimpy 4lber, (kitchen scales this time) PB on the fly from up there so quite chuffed and some of the nicest fish I've tasted in a long while, gave the big un to my chum up there - he'd taken pity on my boat free status and been supplying us with fresh crabs every few days
although in my excitement to try the flea rod I caught something a bit bigger than expected - ouch!
but did get this in return, maybe it was the blood on the fly that did it, looks pretty battle scarred from the tussle through the rocks and weeds
in return
new recipe variation on batter for deep frying was discovered - 2 or 3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar in the batter, awesome
coalies millions of the bleeders, mackeral loads and loads, pollock loads of wee uns and 4 proper ones, 3 ickle wrasse, 2 6"codling taken on a float, about dozen flatties, loads of free brown crabs (cheers ally!) and a few bucketfulls of prawns
back up in october armed with bait fork and buckets
weather did settle enough to get around all the usual haunts though, only to be followed by gazillions of just on size or slightly undersize coalies - almost everywhere. had one night at the lighthouse with literally a fish every cast for both me and finn. tried all sorts, bottom fishing, float fishing, spinning fly fishing, same story. stick a set of daylights on and get 6 at once
but when you've a spot like this to fish who cares what you catch
did have one coley free session and landed (and lost) some muckle big mackeral, biggest I've seen any road, a couple must of been pushing 2lb, which were noshed as a tribute to Mr C and the nicest tasting ones of the fortnight, maybe Mr C can confirm that the bigger lads taste bestest
also invented an automatic 'chummin' machine for anyone going sharking. the pooch is partial to mackeral, if I leave em at me feet she'll whip one and eat it double quick. although eating 4 on the trot was a bit much and 10 minutes later back they came, perfect mashed chum for groundbait, spewed into the sea off a rock edge, the fish went nuts for the next hour!
did get at the pollock a couple of times plenty of them as well, all around the 4 to 7 mark (unfortunately thats inches BTW)
plenty of the cleanest fattest flatties I've seen in a while from the sandy beaches, best about a 2lber, hard to tell wether they were all flounder or plaice though, so good was their disguise (false beard and comedy groucho marx specs), but beautiful fish to look at ( or rub with lemon zest and fry)
second last day, had a wander and a bit of rock hopping and found a new spot, now known as the doorway on account of holl saying it looks like a doorway. Sheer cliff side with a big square cut out you can step down a few rocks into and be just a few feet above the water, sheltered from the elements and wide enough to swing a 12 foot rod
found where Mr Pollack's big mates hide out 8 or 9 casts with the spinning rod, 4 takes lost 2, landed 2. guessed them at 6 and 8lbs , although the kitchen scales said 5 and 7! scrappy as owt though and ducked and dived all the way in. ran back to car for the flea rod and hooked several (probably little) lost em all, finally got a wimpy 4lber, (kitchen scales this time) PB on the fly from up there so quite chuffed and some of the nicest fish I've tasted in a long while, gave the big un to my chum up there - he'd taken pity on my boat free status and been supplying us with fresh crabs every few days
although in my excitement to try the flea rod I caught something a bit bigger than expected - ouch!
but did get this in return, maybe it was the blood on the fly that did it, looks pretty battle scarred from the tussle through the rocks and weeds
in returnnew recipe variation on batter for deep frying was discovered - 2 or 3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar in the batter, awesome
coalies millions of the bleeders, mackeral loads and loads, pollock loads of wee uns and 4 proper ones, 3 ickle wrasse, 2 6"codling taken on a float, about dozen flatties, loads of free brown crabs (cheers ally!) and a few bucketfulls of prawns
back up in october armed with bait fork and buckets
just scranned the Pollack from Saturday...got to say (and I'll duck from those with differing opinions) it's tastier than Cod and Ling IMHO 
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